Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Awakening, all rights to the owners.
Minor: Dark Flier, Immortal, Boxer (Pugilist), Exploitive, Swordmaster, Angry Cinnamon Roll, Tripping, Perpetual Cheer, Chef, Blacksmith, Pegasus Knight, Teacher, Librarian, Masochist, Literal-Minded, Authoritative, Wyvern Rider, Phobia, Thicc, Tsundere, Damsel in Distress, Gangrel's Child, Wyvern Rider, Child, Communist, Bomber, Bear Cavalry, Flying, ADHD, Super Strength, Patriotic, Martial Artist, Scottish, Sassy, One Liner, Seamstress, Shephard, Speedy, Cool, Shy, Bookworm, Mercenary, Sweet, Kung Fu, Buff, Lazy, Wingless Flight, Blunt, Paranoid.
Standard: Elemental, Deaf, Foreign, Future sight, Nurse/Medic, Valmese Tactician, Medusa, Genderfluid, Gift from Validar + evil to good, Mimic, Emotionless, Crippling Overspecialization (Idiot Savant), Coward, ESP, POW, PTSD, Magician, Mute, Handicapped, Secret Helper, Crazy, Morpher, Dreamwalker, Twins, Regenerating, Animal Whisperer, Naga/Tiki Assistant, Deadly Touch, Mind Reader, Doppelganger, Arachne, D&D magic, Umbramancer, Dominatrix, Songstress, Kinky, Matchmaker, Androphobic, Illusionist, Attraction Aura, Ring Maker, Therapist, Teleporting, Crippled, Puppet, Broken, Hallucination, Depressed, Slave, Love Curse, Detective, Geokinetic, Trauma, Siren.
Unlikely: Chrom's child, Minotaur, Paladin, Werewolf, Assassin, Future Soldier, Bounty Hunter, Weather control, Kleptomaniac, Druid, Steampunk, Shadow Familiar, Magic Augmentation, Lucky, Exile, Piper (Charmer), Gladiator, Witch Doctor, Centaur, Drunk, Demon, Punk, Harpy, Revenant, Luck Manipulation, Demon Summoner, Megalomaniac, Kitsune, King of Plegia, Mood Ring, Reverse Aging, Hammerspace, Prostitute, Demon Hunter, Cyborg, Maid/Servant/Butler, Deadlord, Rebellion, Einherjar, Trap, Yandere, Living Weapon, Size Shifter, Queen of Plegia, Gluttonous, Stretchy, Alchemist, Protoss, Spirit Manipulation, Invisible, Plegian Honor Guard, Mecha, Kryptonian, Creator, Orc, Memory Stealing Respawn, Racer, Khan, Misfortune, Vampire Hunter, Geokinetic, Imaginary Actualization, Death, Resurrection, Force, Merchant, Background Music, Variable, Civilian, Natural Disaster, Mental Noise Projection, Hidden OP, Summoner, Cyclops, Teleporter, Cryokinetic, Genie, Judge, Intangibility, Fortune Teller, Future Vision, Serial Killer, Pervert, Magic Fixit, Drakengard Restoration, Ying-Yang, Childhood Friend, Cyberpunk, Chrom's Mother, Obsessed, Berserker, Phase Shift, Gravity Manipulation, Hallucinating, Bladesoul, Zombie, Double Entendre, Shared Body/Two Souls, Cannibal, Singer, Violent, Insane, Waterbender, Casanova, Cupid, Undertaker, Master Thief, Guard, Faceless, Shadow, Age Control, Cradle Snatcher, Emo, Singer, Nun, Courier, Haunted Knight Armor, Egyptian, Sentient Object, Shit Lord, Court Wizard, Naga's sibling, Mad Queen, Artist, Predator, Cheshire Cat, Radio Host, Chimera, Wendigo, Witch, Symbiote, Hivemind, Hammerspace, Anna, Mother Nature, Psychopath, Stripper, Painting, Grima Parts, Knightmare, Super, Swimsuit, Bunny Outfit, One Punch, Idol, Chef, Rampage, Housewife, Determination, Vessel of Naga, Instant Expert, Time Travel, Hermit, Alternate Dimension 'Twin', Legendary, Resistance, Memory Regain, Umbra Witch, Naga, Aquatic, Hexblade Warlock, Dragon, Demon of Choice, Demon of Temptation, Affliction, Good Samaritan, Gallant, Rosannite Tactician, Leeroy, Dungeon, Apparition, Unwilling, Wildlife Commander, Consistent Kidnapee, Grenadier, Magic Creature, Alternating Mind Control, Sothis in the Mind, Exalt.
Other: Second Generation replacement, Dimensional Walker, Cycle, Fates.
Hmm… I've tried several things, and none of them are working. This is starting to get frustrating. I could get the ideas to work if they weren't Robin, but since they are it presents a particular difficulty.
Horror Monster Robin, suggested by Guest. The fourth or fifth time I've tried this. Hope it works this time.
There's something stalking the Ylisse-Plegia border, preying on livestock and bandits. Reports vary on what it is exactly. It mostly strikes at night, making it hard to see. Some say it flies, buzzing like some sort of bug, and others say it scuttles around on many legs. Others still report seeing a face and hearing a voice, but the only description of the face is "white" and no one agrees on what the voice is. The reports of its size vary massively from about human height to twice the size of a wyvern.
The animals it takes in the dead of night, never to be seen again. It doesn't leave their bodies lying where they can be easily found. The bandits it slays, however, display a wide range of injuries. Many of them have puncture or slash marks, but some have dents in their armor or even their skulls that indicate some sort of clubbing attack, and many also don't sport obviously deadly injuries at all; it's as if they took a few small hits than just dropped dead.
At the very least it isn't targeting Ylissians. That's why the Shepherds haven't gone to deal with it. They never intended to deal with it to be honest. As much as it's a pain to lose a few livestock here and there, the extra border security from it killing bandits is actually hugely helpful with Ylisse's limited military.
Not that they could tell that to the villagers. The villagers wouldn't care. So now that they're actually here, the Shepherds are basically forced to take care of it so as to not lose face.
"The information we've gathered is woefully insufficient." Miriel sighs. "The reports are occasionally contradictory, always impercise, and assign this creature many traits that do not seem to coincide in any natural creature."
"Perhaps then it is something from the Fey Jungle?" Sully suggests with a frown. "Naga knows that place is home to all sorts of horrors."
"It is possible." Miriel murmurs. "But creatures in the Fey Jungle seldom venture beyond it. There are insufficient food sources beyond its borders. A dire bear would not find enough food on a weekly basis to sustain itself. However, I will take this into account. It is merely unlikely, not an impossibility."
"Do ya think Plegia intentionally dumped it here?" Vaike offers in a surprising moment of intelligence. "Maybe they planned for it to cause a bit o' chaos, but instead it just kills bandits and such? They coulda gotten it from their other weird places too. What are they called…"
"The Titans Sinkhole and the Dead Swamp." Tharja says in a bored voice. "Even the grimleal avoid those places for the most part. It would have to have been captured by someone of extreme power, like Validar himself."
"But considering how little effect this creature has had so far it would be a very poorly thought-out plan, which doesn't seem Validar's style." Chrom mutters.
"Perhaps we should put this question aside for the moment." Frederick suggests. "We should focus on actually finding the creature first."
"Of course, no sense worrying over what we can't know." Chrom nods. "Panne, do you think you'll be able to track this thing?"
"We shall see." Panne frowns. "I do not know what I am searching for, so this will be a matter of luck, unfortunately."
"Hopefully when we get reports from the villages nearby we can narrow down the search area." Chrom sighs. "Alright, unless anyone has any more ideas, you're dismissed."
###
The Shepherds had heard of bandit attacks in one of the nearby villages. The bandits were also along the route the creature is suspected of taking, so Chrom makes the call to move to the recently attacked village in hopes that either the bandits or the creature will move on it.
They're not disappointed. Only a day after they set up camp near the village Bandits crash down on it in a nighttime raid. Or, they would have crashed down on it if Sully hadn't sounded the alarm to rally the Shepherds to the defence.
The bandits aren't too much of a problem, but Chrom refuses to underestimate them. That's how unexpected injuries and deaths are suffered. Emmet is a testament to that. They don't need a repeat of what happened to him.
They beat the bandits back to the forest easily, but there's where the problems start. Without mounted lanterns around the village to help them they have to fight while holding torches, or else fight in the darkness.
Chrom chooses to fight without a torch. He charges into the brush swinging Falchion in wide arcs to cut down plants and bandits alike. Frederick is somewhere behind him in the thick of the fighting, but Chrom is trying to find the leader. He saw the man running away before any of the other bandits, so he should be beyond the rest of the bandits.
Running through the shadowed forest with sounds all around him makes finding the man rather difficult. Lights flicker in the distance from torches, and sometimes sputter and die as they are dropped. Shadows waver and slither about as Chrom barrels through them. Each little moment could just as easily be an axe aimed at his face as it could a leaf or a startled animal, so he has to be vigilant of everything.
It turns out to be unnecessary. The Prince literally stumbles over the leader's dead body a moment later. He can't tell what killed him thanks to the darkness, but he won't complain. He slits the man's throat for good measure, just in case he's faking it, and turns to run back to the Shepherds before he spots something from the corner of his eye. The hair on the back of his neck stands up on end when he gets a proper look at it.
It looks like a smiling mask. A perfect, pure white oval that stands in sharp contrast to the shadows around it, almost as if it's illuminated, but there's no light source nearby. The eyes and mouth are perfect circles and a perfect crescent respectively, quite unlike the eyes and mouth of any normal being. However, both the eyes and the mouth seem to be empty voids. It's just black. In fact, now that Chrom's studying it, the entire mask looks less like a mask and more like it's painted onto a dark surface.
Then the mask moves. It rotates sharply, ninety degrees, turning horizontal. Chrom startles from this movement and takes a step back, he also puts his sword between himself and this… thing. He isn't sure if it's something he did, or the sound of hooves approaching, but a moment later the mask suddenly pulls back into the darkness and is gone. It didn't turn around and run away, it was pulled back while still looking at him, as if it was on a string.
Chrom feels much better when Frederick rides up to him, asking if the bandit leader has been defeated. The Prince says "yes", and accompanies his retainer back to the rest of the Shepherds.
###
"Woah…" Sully mutters as they return to where the bandit leader died last night. "Everything's dead."
She's technically not correct. The trees are alive… if a bit off-colored compared to the rest of the surrounding foliage. The grass and underbrush has all died though, and has turned a sickly purple color. With the sunlight to help, Chrom can now see the dead bandit leader's skin has also gained a purple tint.
"Some sort of poison?" Chrom asks, unsure.
"It would seem so." Miriel murmurs. "Though not one I am familiar with."
Well, that's not reassuring. Chrom had been holding out hope that Miriel would be able to identify their target once they got some concrete information on it. Apparently not.
"I've heard of something like this…" Tharja mutters in her usual low voice. "There's a rare type of poison in Plegia that has similar effects. It's actually not that potent, you need quite a bit of it for it to be useful, and as such it is used mostly to send a message rather than it's potency, which, again, is not very high."
"From where does the poison come?" Miriel asks.
"I don't know." Thajra sighs. "It's a rich man's poison, and a bad one at that. I only know a little about it."
"Ah, quite a shame…" The mage sighs. "It would have been immensely helpful."
"Sorry for not having future sight." Tharja remarks dryly.
"The smell here is… unusual." Panne murmurs. Her nose wrinkles in distaste. "Rotting plants."
"Rotting? How curious." Miriel says. "The plants should not have begun to rot. If they are already doing so, that would mean this poison has increased their rate of decomposition… or something with similar effects at least."
"Can you track it? Does the smell go beyond this area?" Chrom asks Panne urgently.
The woman stalks around the area, sniffing the ground and the trees around her. After a few minutes her eyes narrow, and she grabs her beaststone and transforms. At first the Shepherds worry combat is imminent, and they all grab for their weapons, but Panne goes right back to sniffing around. Miriel murmurs something about Taguel "having better senses in beast form" and start furiously scribbling in her notebook.
Panne starts moving off to the south, in the direction Chrom suspects the mask was dragged. Her nose is glued to the ground for the moment, but it doesn't stay that way for very long. She stops after five minutes of travel, sniffs around the area, and untransforms. "The scent ends here. It does not taper off gradually either. It vanishes."
"The thing can fly, right?" Sully asks. "Maybe it took off."
"Most likely." Miriel nods.
"So how do we find it then?" Vaike grumbles.
"If I may…" Cordelia coughs. "Myself and Sumia could search from the air. It is not a surefire way to find the thing, but at the very least it will be an active step."
"A fine idea." Frederick approves. "Milord?"
"Yes. Get going." Chrom nods. "If you see anything suspicious, keep your distance. If the thing can fly, it may be able to fight you when you are in the air. Do not attempt to engage it."
"Understood Captain." Cordelia nods. She turns to her friend. "Sumia! Let's go."
"R-Right!"
###
This is bad. Very, very, very bad.
"Dive!" Cordelia orders her friend. The two swoop low in the air, and arrows shoot over their heads not a second later. The two of them were looking for a monster, not more bandits.
It doesn't help that these bandits weren't wearing the usual red, and instead have green clothing. They were almost totally camouflaged, and now that Cordelia can see them she notices that they have military-grade steel weapons, vulunaries and concoctions at their hips, a proper healer, and even some mages who are currently pulling out wind tomes.
Hardly random bandits. More likely these are Plegian military soldiers masquerading as bandits, and with their camouflage they are more dangerous than ever, and capable of proper ambushes… like this one.
"Wh-What do we do?" Sumia squeaks. Her pegasus does an aerial roll, narrowly avoiding another arrow. Sumia's hair wildly whips around her face from the movement. "We need to get away!"
"I know!" Cordelia groans. But they're being cut off. The archers are very intentionally shooting in front of the pegasus knights, forcing them to suddenly stop or change direction. They've basically been flying in circles for the last two minutes while trying desperately to see a way out.
They could try to go up, but that's dangerous in its own right. If they go too high, they're going to start feeling lightheaded, and that's a great way to accidentally fall off your pegasus. It might be their only option at this point though.
Then something else unexpected happens. Some of the bandits start shouting and pointing to the west, and it's soon obvious why. A cloud of purple mist rolls amongst the trees, pushing towards the group of bandits. There must be something in it, because several of them turn their bows and spells away from the pegasus knights to shoot into the mist.
Sumia and Cordelia don't stay to figure out why. They flee, taking advantage of the bandits' distraction, and make a beeline back to the Shepherds.
###
"Over here!" Cordelia shouts.
Weapons in hand, the Shepherds charge through the forest. They can already hear the sound of battle ahead of them. It's not the clashing of weapons exactly, but the shouts of fighting and cries of terror that they hear.
Chrom is surprised the fight is still happening. It's been ten minutes since Cordelia and Sumia returned, which means it took them about ten minutes to get here to them at least. Small battles rarely last that long.
Then Chrom sees the purple smoke. He remembers the dead plants with the purple hue, makes the connection, and shouts out a warning. "Don't go near the smoke! It's poison!"
Various Shepherds bark their understanding as they move out to make a semi-circle and cut off the bandits' escape path.
"This must mean the creature is nearby, right?" Chrom frowns. He's presuming the monster was the one who poisoned the plants and bandit in the first place. That could have been something entirely unrelated, but he thinks that's unlikely. "It's either in the smoke, or on the other side of it… this fight might get nasty very quickly. We need to be cautious."
With the mist acting like a wall that stops the bandits from running away, the Shepherds can work quite effectively. They encircle the bandits to cut off any other escape route, and slowly press inwards. The bandits either fall to blades and magic, or are forced into the poisonous smoke where they don't reemerge. Presumably, they're killed by the creature.
With the Shepherds on the scene, the bandits are killed rather quickly. They surround the smoky area, pointing weapons at, but everyone stalls from then on, not sure how to handle the situation.
"Shall I shoot?" Virion asks uncertainly, after several seconds of inaction. "It does not seem to be attacking us."
Chrom doesn't know. He was honestly expecting the creature to attack them after the bandits were dealt with. He wasn't prepared for no response. "I… well…"
A laugh, "eyahahahaha!", sounds out from the smoke. It's distorted, like someone shouting through a cave or in a building with good acoustics. The laugh is followed by a low buzzing sound, and the smoke is propelled outwards, but also blown upwards. All the Shepherds take rushed steps away to avoid inhaling it.
The smoke being blown upwards blocks Chrom's view of the creature that rises out of it. He manages to spot a large back form, about twice the size of a wyvern, and four giant dragonfly-like wings that flutter rapidly in the same manner as a dragonfly.
"Captain! Do we strike?!" Cordelia shouts from the skies. She clenches her lance tightly, with her gaze fixed on the creature. She can see its full form: a giant, black, bug-like thing with an extremely long and flexible neck with a white smile mask that looks painted onto the head. It has three pairs of legs along the body that end in sharp segmented spikes as well as two pairs of long, segmented spikes for arms. The entire body seems to be covered in chiten, basically bug armor, and Cordelia feels doubtful her lance is actually going to deal any damage.
Also, this thing is scaring her pegasus. Heck, it's scaring her. The smiling 'face' is truly unnerving. The eyes aren't even eyes. Cordelia can see sunlight illuminating the inside of them. They're just holes in its head.
"Get out of the way!" Chrom orders, then looks behind her and blanches. "Don't- oh gods fly! Move!"
Cordelia doesn't question the order and immediately orders her pegasus into a dive. A second later a wyvern roars through the space her mount was just occupying, and an axe whips by where her head just was. Wyvern riders are easy to spot, but with all the Shepherds focused on the creature none of them had been looking at their surroundings.
The rider, and the other riders that accompanied it, are all dressed in the garb of Plegian soldiers. Chrom suspects now that the so-called bandits must have sent someone for reinforcements when they engaged the creature.
To Chrom's surprise, the creature ignores the Shepherds entirely, and instead barrels towards the nearest wyvern rider with a gargling screech. It strikes with its sharp forearms, making pinpoint strikes against the riders of the wyverns rather than the creatures themselves.
"Shepherds, regroup! Take down those wyverns!" Chrom orders. He glances into the forest, noting some more foes approaching on foot. It's not an insignificant amount either, there are at least fifty of them, and probably more he can't see. "We've got lots of infantry here! Nowi, stall them!"
"You got it!" The manakete replies. She roars and rushes straight into the group, spitting divine fire indiscriminately to break up their formation rather than at any particular target.
Cordelia pulls her pegasus up sharply to avoid another lunge from a wyvern, only to be forced into a roll by another screeching over her head. They have many fliers, and she and Sumia alone can't deal with this.
She isn't sure if it's a miracle or a death sentence when the creature swoops down from above to slam into one of her pursuers. It's legs are apparently as sharp as it's forearms, because they dig into the wyvern's scaly back, anchoring the creature to the wyvern, and allowing it to easily dispatch the rider with a club-attack made by violently whipping its head like one would a flail.
The wyvern, no longer getting directions from its rider, attempt to flee, which the creature allows. The creature turns its long head to look at Cordelia, and for a moment she thinks that she's the next target, but it looks away after a second and instead targets another one of the wyvern riders.
Cordelia is starting to suspect it's intentionally ignoring the Shepherds. She isn't sure what to think about that. Is this thing actually an ally, or is it just prioritizing killing Plegians first?
It doesn't matter. Right now, they need to deal with this platoon. To keep safe, Cordelia decides to keep herself above the creature. It's quicker to dive than to climb, so if it suddenly turns on her this will give her more time to react. This also effectively protects her underside though, as the creature will take out any foe that gets close. Sure, she's also protecting its upper body, but that's negligible.
The battle quickly becomes a fighting retreat for the Shepherds. They're all fine, but they're simply outnumbered. Nowi is forced to retreat when the Plegian platoon reveals mages, Sumia takes a strike to her shoulder and has to flee, and the Shepherds with horses or magic are occupied just keeping the rest of them from getting surrounded to be fighting to their fullest.
This fight is a bust. They need to get out.
Then something horrible happens. Chrom doesn't know if she stumbled over something or got hit by a spell, but Tharja takes a hard fall and the Plegians surge forwards to capitalize on it. Any doubt the Shepherds had about the creature being on their side are suddenly dismissed as it drops from the sky, landing over Tharja with its head reared high and claws flared defensively, and screeches at the Plegains approaching it. It snaps its head forward, spitting purple smoke at them, and strikes out with its forearms at the myrmidons that are foolish enough to get too close.
Chrom is baffled beyond belief that this thing is helping them, but he's not about to complain. He grabs Tharja, who's sumbling out from under the giant creature's abdomen, and helps her flee while the creature covers them. The huge poisonous smoke cloud in the Plegian lines helps quite a bit as well.
As soon as the Shepherds have gotten enough distance, the creature takes to the air for its own protection. It flies above them as some sort of terrifying escort and strikes down wyvern riders (who are the only ones who can easily keep up with them) when they get too close.
At some point the Plegian platoon just gives up and turns around. They must have decided this fight wasn't getting them anywhere… and that Ylissian reinforcements might be coming (they're not, Ylisse's military is spread way too thin, but Plegia doesn't know the full extent of that).
So the Shepherds get back to their camp with their new… companion. It hovers above them for a few minutes, watching everyone. It's only when some of the Shepherds start breaking off to tend to wounds or repair weapons that it decides the situation is safe enough for it to land. It sets down a few dozen meters from the camp and close to the treeline, presumably so it can beat a quick retreat if it needs to.
"It demonstrates remarkable intelligence." Miriel notes excitedly. "I simply must study it."
"Don't scare it too much Miriel." Vaike laughs. "Remember when ya tried to study Lon? Ya scared him good."
The mage isn't listening. "Some have reported hearing voices, is it possible it can speak? Can it understand us? How did it learn to do such a thing? When?"
Chrom steps in. "At the very least let me accompany you… for safety."
"Her's or its?" Vaike mutters under his breath. Chrom shoots him a look… but in his mind he actually agrees with the man. Frederick falls into step alongside him, guarding the two.
The creature watches them approach cautiously. It's head lowers to their level, but not without its claws opening slightly, prepared to strike in defence if need be. Chrom isn't even sure if it sees out of its "eyes" considering they aren't actually eyes, but just holes in its head. Actually, how does this thing eat? He hasn't seen the mouth move even when spitting poisonous smoke.
"Pardon my intrusion." Miriel begins, "but I could not restrain my curiosity! You have shown remarkable intelligence for a being that is not human-esque! It has long been argued that only beings that fall into the human-like, demi-human, or monstrous human categories, with the sole exception of dragons, are intelligent! Among plants for example, only Alraunes are intelligent. The next closest would be a vine wraith, who have the intelligence of apes, but if the reports are not exaggerated then you can speak, yes!? If you are capable of such communication and complex thinking, it would be a breakthrough in our understanding of the world!"
The creature stills for a few seconds, then turns its head to face Chrom. The prince can't read it's emotions, it doesn't have facial expressions, but he wouldn't be surprised if it's silently asking: "is this one sane?" So Chrom just shrugs. He doesn't know what to tell it.
"So, I repeat, can you speak?" Miriel asks eagerly.
There's a long pause while the two stare at each other. Miriel with excitement, and the creature with… well, Chrom has no idea.
"If I say yes…" The creature says in a low, cautious voice. The mouth doesn't move, but the voice seems to come out of the mouth still. "Will you leave me alone?"
"Ah! You can speak, and you understand me perfectly!" Miriel gasps. She starts furiously scribbling in her notebook. "You must tell me everything about yourself!"
The creature quickly looks at Chrom. "Is this normal?"
Chrom snorts in amusement. "Yes." A moment ago this thing seemed like a massive threat, but… that's such a normal response to Miriel. "I suppose she's gotten a bit ahead of herself though. She's Miriel. I'm Chrom, and this is Frederick. And you are…?"
"Robin."
The Prince blinks rapidly. "Robin?"
"Yes."
That's… a weird name for a giant bug monster in Chrom's opinion. "I see."
"A human name? How peculiar…" Miriel mutters. She hasn't stopped writing. "Did you name yourself? Did your parents name you? Do you have parents? Or does your species more resemble bees, and you only have one relevant parent? What was your upbringing like? How did you learn to speak? Can you speak more than one language?"
Chrom feels like he's going to be here for a looooong time.
###
Long interrogation short, Robin isn't really a bug monster… or he doesn't think he is. He's an amnesiac, and he feels strange to be a bug monster, which (and Miriel agrees) seems to indicate he shouldn't be a bug monster, else his inborn reaction to such a thing wouldn't be surprise. He's been stalking the Plegia-Ylisse border for about five months, but all the villagers run from him when he tries to approach. He's taken to killing bandit groups though, as he's no more fond of indiscriminate murder than any other person.
Everyone still finds his mask face extremely creepy… except Miriel, who is looking at it scientifically ("an adaptation to help with hunting humans perhaps? Like the humanoid lure of an Alraune but less sophisticated? Fascinating…") and Tharja, who just likes creepy things.
Chrom has also restricted Miriel to one hour of interro- study a day with Robin. Thankfully, she only spends part of that time asking him questions, and much more attempting to reverse his condition. If this is a curse or transformation as she suspects it is, the condition should be reversible.
In the meantime however… Robin plays chess. No, Chrom isn't joking. Yes, it is sort of hilarious to watch a massive bug monster delicately move around tiny pieces with its claws. Even more funny is how Virion keeps winning, and you can tell Robin just lost by how his legs rapidly tap the ground in irritation.
Robin, unsurprisingly, can't fit into any of the tents, and as such is forced to sleep outside. He's plenty used to it, but it doesn't sit well with Chrom to do that to a Shepherd, even a new, giant-bug Shepherd.
It feels wrong especially when it rains, which it does.
You know what? I'm stopping here. I know this is a more awkward spot than usual but I honestly don't think I can make this idea work more. I like this idea, I really do, but it's not suited for Robin. It's reliant on horror, and horror doesn't really work once you know about the target, so as soon as Robin is no longer a foe he stops being scary in any way.
I suppose there are a few ways I could have continued this chapter, but most of them are either boring or just pointless. It was fun to do this, and I learned quite a bit about how to do horror (even if not well), but I'm glad to move on from this.
omegazeroinfi: It was a bit more experimental, so I'm not surprised to hear it was a bit confusing. The next batch of epilogues are going to come at chapter 80, so it'll be a bit.
Darkness is complete: Noted.
Dandaman5: I have the same feeling to be honest. I'd love to see some of these ideas as full stories, but firstly: I doubt my own ability to do that well (my only attempted full story for Fire Emblem didn't get a lot of traction), and secondly: I wouldn't get to put out all the ideas. I figured small stories for all these would be better than trying (and failing) to do just a few. I'd hoped other people would pick up some of the ideas and run with them (and that offer is still open) but they didn't, so I guess this is what we get.
Vanderspiegel: I see… alright. I can probably work with that.
DaredOrchid: So alternating mind control by various members of the Shepherds? Interesting, albeit hard to explain in-universe.
MidnaMoo: Glad you story! Nice to hear from a new name.
Guest: That chapter seems to be a bit of a favourite. People just seem to love Tiki.
Dragon Tag: I'll put those down. It's going to be extremely hard to justify Sothis in-universe though.
Chai-Emlee: Male Robin huh? I'll admit, for the longest while male Robin chapters were something I did begrudgingly. I enjoy them now, but it took me a while to find something to enjoy about them beyond certain chapters. A lot of people seem to love chapter 49, I think it's something about Tiki…
Nice to hear from you! You'll hear a bit more of chapter 49 Robin in the second round of short epilogues, but only a bit.
bauers374: Lol.
Zomblay: I've grown to enjoy the male ones too, but romance is my thing, and I find it a lot easier with Female Robin. You're totally right to say male Robin focuses more on the quirks. I give more focus to story than character in those (usually), so I intentionally cater to showing off multiple aspects of Robin's quirk than just the parts that make for a funny story or good romance.
Hope to see you around more!
thedock.j2: Good. Even to this day I'm worried that chapter is going to catch flak, so it always reassuring to hear people think it's well done.
B1ackAshes: So, I'm not going to address every single comment here like I usually would. I think we can both agree that would take forever, and is rather unnecessary. Instead, I'll jump to a few that caught my eyes, denoting by the chapter you reviewed.
(22) I have this tendency to turn villains of other stories into either tragic villains or redeemable characters. For some reason, I just don't like writing outright villains. It's the same reason I give Gangrel such preferential treatment. Actually, for a while, this chapter was one of what I considered my worst (it got quite the mixed reaction), though I've since changed my opinion.
(23) Okay, I love this chapter. I consider it a good mix of showing off Robin's quirk (him dealing with the blood thirst by preying on a villager, and later Lissa, as well as showing his light aversion) and showing off his personality (the scene with spying on Chrom and Sumia, as well as his general interactions with Lissa). I'm curious as to your reason why you think the spying scene doesn't work. Is it because it doesn't focus on the quirk? Or does it feel poorly implemented in general? Both?
(26) This is one of my favourite chapters. Top five probably, or at least close to it. It was the first time (that I can remember) I combined two quirks into one story (houndmaster and blindness), and of course I enjoyed it because I got to use an aggressive personality for Robin, which is always fun.
(27) This chapter… it had a few revisions, and I'm still not satisfied with it (though I do enjoy it). I used Henry to force the plot along faster than I would have liked so I could get it all down in a reasonable amount of words. I think a lot of the chapters I write have good potential for a story, but this one in particular is one I'd love to see taken up.
(29) Yeah, definitely dropped the ball a bit here. I realized halfway through I wouldn't even be showing off his power at all, so that's why I had the scene with Nowi thrown it at the end. I like his personality, but that definitely could have been done better.
(30) Okay, this chapter I am extremely proud of. I consider it one of my most well-written pieces of writing ever to date. The repeated paragraph at the end is completely intentional. It's a repetition to show just how much each day is like the last. The same routine over, and over, and over.
(35) I'm rather sparing with my use of Emmet. I included him in the collection in the first place because I wanted an OC, but I force myself to not give him the spotlight without a very good reason because I know OCs can be intrusive and disruptive. I'm still on the fence if having him in any story is a good idea, but I'm quite committed now, so I guess he's staying.
(36) There are some concessions I have to make in my mental world-building for certain stories. Robin's mother is one of them. There are several cases where I write a chapter knowing full well there are issues in the background that make the story hard to explain if you look too closely at them. I sweep those under the rug for a sake of a good story most of the time, mostly because, as these are one-shots, I'll never have to address those issues.
(37) Yeah, this whole chapter was lackluster. I have no counter to that.
(41) Comedy doesn't come naturally to me, so this was a difficult chapter. The fact that I'm not good at writing lyrics, even for parodies, didn't help.
(46) Yeah, this one doesn't have much room to work with for a war-oriented story like Awakening's.
(50) I can't not talk about this chapter. I consider Consistent Amnesia Robin a more well-written chapter all around, but this one holds a special place in my heart. There were a few concessions made to condense it already, so it certainly could have been a longer story even without Valm or Grima.
(53) I was so worried Robin wasn't going to go over well here, but it was some of the most fun I've had writing a character ever.
(60) That's fair criticism. That was a more experimental chapter.
I'll jot your ideas down. Don't worry about not having any if you can't think of them; as you can see from the list, I already have plenty to work with.